


asleep and not asleep

by theladyscribe



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 06:05:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4949515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyscribe/pseuds/theladyscribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers wakes up in a hospital room. There is a baseball game on the radio, and the sportscasters' voices are soothing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	asleep and not asleep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [newredshoes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/newredshoes/gifts).



> My dear newredshoes, I hope you like this little tricky treat. <3
> 
> Title is from "On the Yard" by Tom Sleigh.

"I'm gonna have to put her in the water," he says.

"Let me get Howard," Peggy says back. "He'll know what to—"

"There’s no time."

"Steve, I—"

Peggy’s voice cuts out, but Steve doesn’t have time to dwell on it. The ocean rises up to meet him, and there’s a moment where he feels as if he’s just skimming the water before salt spray begins to bubble into the cockpit. Ice-cold water seeps into his boots, and he considers cutting them off his feet before shaking his head. He’ll die here, boots on or off. No one will be able to reach him before he either sinks to the bottom of the ocean or he succumbs to hypothermia.

He only hopes the end comes quickly.

*

Steve Rogers wakes up in a hospital room. There is a baseball game playing on the radio, and the voices of the sportscasters are soothing. He opens his eyes to see Peggy sitting in an uncomfortable-looking chair, dozing. He coughs just once, to get her attention.

She doesn't startle; her eyes open slowly, and she smiles. "You missed our date," she tells him. "Left me waiting at the club like a fool."

"Sorry," he answers. "My ride broke down."

*

Steve Rogers wakes up in a hospital room. He can hear voices he does not recognize, can smell antiseptic and a strange sweetness like licorice. The mattress beneath his fingers is rough and lumpy. He opens his eyes to bright lights over his head and a man peering down at him.

"Ah Captain," the man says in heavily-accented English, "you're awake."

*

Steve wakes up in a hospital room. There is a baseball game playing on the radio, two teams he doesn't recognize (the...Mets and the Astros?), the voices and the names they call unfamiliar. He opens his eyes to an unfamiliar room, machines beeping and soft murmurs in the corridor.

There's a redheaded woman sitting in a chair and reading a glossy magazine. She doesn't seem to notice him.

He wants to move, but he finds that he can't, and he wills the woman to look at him, to realize he's awake.

*

Steve wakes up in a hospital room.

*

He wakes up in a hospital.

*

He wakes up.

*

He wakes.

*

He—

*

Steve Rogers wakes up in a hospital room. There is a baseball game playing on the radio, and the voices of the sportscasters are soothing. Red Barber calls the wind-up, and Al Helfer—no, that can't be right. Helfer left for the Navy in '41, and besides, Rizzo's playing for—it's an in-the-park grand-slam and the Dodgers lead 8-4, and Steve is glad he's sitting down, because he's not sure his legs could hold him.

A WAC walks in the door, but nothing about her is right: her clothes, the too-dark lipstick, the blinking controller in her hand.

"Where am I?" Steve hears himself ask, his mind racing, calculating whether this is another nightmare, whether he can escape before she presses that button, whether he is back in Germany or somewhere worse.

"You're in a recovery room in New York City," she says, her voice an attempt at soothing but too full of tremors to be anything more than scared.

"Where am I really?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"The game. It's from May 1941. I know, 'cause I was there." The woman is nervous, he can see it in the twitch of her fingers, so he presses. "Now, l'm going to ask you again. Where am l?"

She shifts, and Steve can see her press the button, so he doesn't wait for an answer.

He bursts out into the street and is nearly hit by the strangest-looking car he has ever seen in his life, the sleek lines of it unlike even Stark's most ambitious designs. There's a cacophony of noise and lights and it almost looks like Times Square, but it couldn't possibly be.

It couldn't be.

It just _can't_.


End file.
